So Shayna and Spiny Norman accompanied me to the parking structure after my farewell dinner at Ye Olde King’s Head so they could check out my new YZF-R1. Shayna said, “We’re not supposed to notice that you dropped it, right?” Huh? I never did. I thought maybe a gardener or maintenance person might have run into it while parking in my space. (My space seems to be the preferred one for strangers to park in when I’m not home.) But today I got the story from a neighbour.
I was talking to a neighbour about helping me load the bikes onto the trailer tomorrow. I mentioned that someone had cracked my fairing, and opined that it might have been a gardener. He said, “Uh-uh. I know who did it.” There’s a neighbour kid who’s too young for a license. He’s known to drive his mom’s car around the building (repositioning it, pulling it out, etc.). He’s also known to show off a bit, squeeling tyres and the like. My neighbour said he was walking up to the gate when he heard a crash. He saw two other neighbours looking on with their mouths agape.
I went to dinner with one of the witnesses, and she said that the boy had asked her and the other neighbour who was watching not to say anything to me. He’d take care of it. He told them that he had left a note on my door. (I never saw a note.) The other neighbours said that as long as he 'fessed up, that they wouldn’t say anything. I didn’t even know about the damage until last week at the King’s Head (I was in Washington when the collision occurred), and when the neighbours heard nothing more they assumed that it had been resolved. The neighbour with whom I dined was furious that he didn’t leave the note.
I confronted him a few minutes ago. He said that he did leave a note; but that he saw no damage when he went back to look at the bike, so he took the note back. To be fair, I didn’t see the damage until Shayna pointed it out. Oh – the fairing is cracked at the bolt, and the pointy bit behind is also cracked.
I don’t know how much a new lower fairing half costs, but I know they’re not cheap. I’m betting they are a few hundred dollars. Not what I need, being unemployed at the moment! Anyway, the mother said that they would make good on it. I’ll have to go to a Yamaha shop in Bellingham when I get there. If the kid had owned up to what he had done when I got back a couple of weeks ago, this would have already been resolved. Now I’m leaving for good tomorrow and will have to deal with making the kid pay up long-distance.
See, this is why you’re not supposed to park in other people’s spaces.
I hope you get the money. Was the kid just being kidly or was he acting like a jerk? I mean, sure, we al make mistakes from time to time, but taking the note back sounds like maybe -MAYBE- he was trying to weasle out of it.
Good luck on your move. I may not be posting in all of them, but I’m reading all the threads about it. I’ve moved several states over a few time myself, so I know the joys and pains of a major relocation.
Cheers!
I think he was just being kidly. His brother says he did leave a note. But then they went back to look for damage and, finding none, he took the note back. “No harm, no foul.” Unfortunately there is damage, but he just didn’t see it. My neighbour who I dined with last night felt aweful. She felt as if she had been duped into silence and felt she betrayed me. He sincerely didn’t know that he had damaged my bike, and confessed immediately when I asked him if he “knew anything about it”.
I haven’t talked to the other neighbour/witness, but I heard that she had been telling the kid that if he kept driving the way he did, he was going to hit something. She was rather angry when he hit my bike, since she had been telling him something like that would happen. She believed that I had received a note, so she didn’t say anything to me. (The kid was plenty scared, and I was gone for almost a week.)
The kid was also afraid that if he left a note (again, thinking he had caused no damage) that I might drop the bike myself and use the note to blame him. He really should know better by now that I’m not that sort of person.
So I don’t think he was being a jerk, but just being a scared kid who knew he hit my beand new bike, knew that plastic is expensive (since he had asked about the frame sliders when I got the bike and I told him how expensive plastic can be), and thought that since he saw no damage then it would be better to just not tell me that he had hit it.
I’m a proponent of harsher penalties for motorcycle-tipping schmucks.
I used to park my bike in a half-parking-spot behind the dumpsters in the office garage. No big deal, nobody could fit even a compact car in it… but the property manager says ABC corp gets four parking spaces, no more.
So one day I come downstairs to find a snotty letter attached to the bike threatening to have it towed if I park it there again. I fume a little, then get on the road, it being late and dark and rainy.
Our office is very close to the highway, so I’m onto the curved entrance ramp before I have to brake… and find I have no rear brake pedal.
Ms. Snotty Parking Lady had managed to tip over my bike, bending the brake pedal back and underneath it, then had one of her burlier staff tip it back up and pretend nothing happened.
My own manager caught me before I threw a fit in the property owner’s office, but I got the message. I now park my bike in a full-size slot right in front of the property managers window.
Good for you! Motorcycles are entitled to just as much space as cars. If the company doesn’t provide smaller motorcycle parking spaces and they get upset when you are nice enough to park such that there is a full-sized space free for a car to park in, then you are entitled to park in one of the full-sized spaces.
I still need to find out how much that piece of plastic costs. I hate to make the kid (or his mother) pay for it since they don’t have a lot of money, but I shouldn’t have to pay for someone else’s negligence.
You can get the piece repaired and repainted far cheaper than you can get the bit from a dealer. Also, lookinto replacing the piece with an aftermarket fiberglass part (such as Multi-Tech or Sharkskinz). It will be cheaper than OEM even with the paint and stickers it will need to look stock.
If you want OEM parts try this link . Ask for John, and mention the Yahoo! FJ1100 club.
No affiliation…just tryin’ to help a brutha out.
On the other hand, you might want to make the little twerp pay full retail, just to make a point…
If someone else is paying, get the genuine Yamaha part. Having spent too many years in the motorcycle biz, I’ll tell ya that none of the aftermarket stuff is as good. Sure, when you have to pay for it, its good enough, but its never as good as the factory stuff. They don’t fit well, the color/stickers are sometimes funky, the “texture” is just wrong (hard to explain, but it ain’t the same) and “age” differently. Even the best ones that look/fit correct now look like shit/different in a few years and it becomes obvious that it is a replacement. (Ex-Yamaha Parts Manager advice)
Good luck, Johnny! I guess yer headin’ up north?
She told me she loved me like a brother. She was from Arkansas, hence the Joy!
Yeah, I’m funny about OEM. That’s what I’ll get. I figure I’ll get a little fiberglass and some epoxy and repair the panel, then sell it on eBay. I’ll refund whatever I get to the kid’s mom.
I guess yer headin’ up north?
[/quote]
I’m here! 
gatopescado, is that why the call Certifit “Sorta fit” 
Well, I admit, I don’t have any experience with Certifit, but I’m guessing its a name they earned. 
I used to deal with Lockhart, Maier, Airtech and some others and it was nothing but a hassle. Most of it came back for a refund after the owners gave up trying to make it work, or complained about the horrible quality after getting in thier hot, little hands. I discouraged it for all but the needy, racers who planned on tearing it up anyway and those that just didn’t care. Those folks got the old “No return” stamp on thier reciept and I would make them sign it. You were warned!
Never kiss an animal that can lick his own butt.
I ordered the part from the Yamaha shop yesterday. $285.42 including tax.